By JOHN K. SMITH

Sun Sports Writer

The Grey Fox of Bremerton today began a new career in a familiar environment, head coach of the Olympic college Rangers.

No one could enter a new arena better armed with knowledge and experience than Ken Wills, coach of the Bremerton, now West Bremerton, Wildcats since 1936.

His appointment to the new position was announced at last night's regular meeting of the school board. He replaces Phil Pesco, OC athletic director and basketball coach who died Nov. 4.

The college coaching level, which he had previously refused to apply for because he didn't want to leave Bremerton, is the culmination of a career of basketball stardom as player and mentor.

He played in the state cage tourney in 1928 and '29 as a member of the Walla Walla Blue Devils, team captain as a senior. He started as varsity guard for Washingotn State college three straight years, named to the coast all-northern division quintet in 1933 and '34. As a high school coach, he made Bremerton the expected annual entry that his prep alma mater Walla Walla always had been. His team won the state championship in 1941 and placed second in 1942, '46 and '48. They placed among the top eight in the 16-team field almost every time they reached the tourney.

Players who earned all-state honors under him were Les Eathorne, present East high coach; Louis Soriano, local coast basketball official, as well as Alan Maul; Ted Tappe and Al Murphy and Howard Thoemke.

In addition to those players who went on to college stardom listed above, other Wills' products who were college stars include Ron Patnoe and Charlie Koon, now coaching in the Seattle school system; Wally Erwin, former University of Puget Sound coach; Bob Bryan, local attorney; Darwin Gilchrest, Sid Ryen and the nucleus of the great Olympic college quintet that went to the national junior college championship finals in 1949; Bill Morris, an all-American at the University of Washington where he later was assistant coach; Roy Critser, assistant coach at Olympic, and more too numerous to list. Koon was all-American as AAU player with the now defunct Buchan Bakers. Patnoe coached his Garfield Bulldogs to the state class AA championship the past two years.

Overall Wills took 15 teams to the state tourney, first in 1940 and the last in 1959. During that period, the only years Wildcats were not represented were 1945, '51, '54 and '58. Although the 'Cats didn't place in the 1950 tournament, won by South Kitsap, they had beaten SK two out of three including district competition that season.

Unanimous vote of the school board last night swiftly followed recommendation of Armin G. Jahr, superintendent of schools, that Wills be named physical education instructor at OC in place of Pesco. Change will be effective Monday.

The vacancy left at West temporarily will be carried on by Wills' assistant Dick Mogg while study of applicants for the Wildcat post is carried on in the same manner as the hunt for successor to Pesco. Notice of the opening was sent to all schools in the district this morning to request applications.

Changes to go into effect in the chain reaction to Wills' elevation to the college will find football coach Chuck Semancik and baseball mentor Tinnie Johnson, both of whom have been teaching three physical education classes and three social study hours, carrying full PE loads at West with substitutes taking over their social study classes.

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KEN WILLS

. . . A New Challenge

Wills, interviewed after the announcement was made official last night, said:

"I'm happy to work with youngsters of college age and calibre although I was satisfied at West. It was difficult to make up my mind to apply.

"But now that I have the job, I will give it all I've got.

"I'm going into it rather cold. I know very little about the Olympic college boys. I will have to depend on Roy Critser quite a little to fill me in the first few weeks.

"I don't expect to make any changes right away, if at all. The kids probably are used to a particular pattern; many of them played for Phil last year.

"My conviction is that the pattern or system isn't as important as how ell it's executed.

"It will be the first time I've had boys playing for me that I haven't had a chance to see for two or three years. I can't just walk in and judge the best player or the starting five in a week - it takes a lot oft time. That's where I expect to get a lot of help from Roy who was there last year."

Practice officially began at Olympic yesterday under Critser. Although Wills doesn't become an official member of the OC faculty until Monday, he planned to meet the team today.

Only five teams in the 15 state tournaments that Wills took to a Wildcats quintet did they fail to place among the first eight. In addition to the championship and the three second-place finishes, 'Cats under Wills took third in 1952 and sixth in 1944, '55 and '58.

Actually Wills had tourney entries an even 60 per cent of his Bremerton career - there was no tournament in 1943 because of World War II conditions.

In his opinion, his greatest team was 1946 when Gilchrist, Soriano, Ryen, his former assistant Don Ellis and Rusty King, among others, were on the game five.

But that's looking backward and Wills isn't looking that direction now. By his own admission, the 52-year-old mentor, who was a sophomore and Pesco a senior when the two were starting guards at Washington State, "feels 10 years younger" with the challenge the Olympic job offers him.

His single reservation, which he warned the administration before accepting the position, concerned recruiting.

"I have never been a proselyter and I don't expect to be one. I'm going to need help there, too. All I want to do is coach," he said.

That, the record proves, he can do.